Wire and cable for installation in residences and buildings typically comes on cable reels. The types of wire and cable so provided are numerous, and include 110V three-conductor wire, “Romex”, and many different kinds of low-voltage, multiconductor insulated communications cable, such as that used for setting up Ethernet networks, intercom systems, entertainment systems and the connection of security sensors and devices. A new building under construction will need many kinds of these cables, and several reels of cable will be used by an installer on-site.
One known technique is to provide coils of such cable in boxes, and to create a hole in a front or top panel of the (typically cardboard) box for pulling out a desired length of cable. This conventional method has a drawback in that the cable may kink inside of the box or otherwise resist being pulled out of the box to such an extent that a cable installer or technician finds that he or she is pulling the box across the floor. Oftentimes the installer has to install several different lengths of cable on a single run. To do this, the installer has had to identify which kinds of cable he or she needs, individually pull cable out of separate boxes and estimate as best as he or she can the amount of cable so pulled.
These boxes of cable are heavy and it takes some effort to move them around. In complex jobs it is easy for one needed box of cable to become physically dissociated from one or more other boxes of cable that will supply lengths of different cable for the same run. A need therefore persists for more efficient methods and apparatus for dispensing cable.